Long Beach, Ca – The Cambodia Town Film Festival celebrated its 10th anniversary after a 2-year hiatus due to the pandemic. The event is a 3-day film forum from September 13th-15th, featuring a variety of Cam

bodian-made short films, feature films, and documentaries, some of which are in English, Khmer, or a combination of both. The film festival is an opportunity for independent Cambodian filmmakers and studios to get their work out into the world and share their creativity with their people. The festival took place in Cambodia Town, where many Cambodian immigrants and their descendants reside.

One of the sponsors of the Film Festival was the “Heng it Up Photography” company. Thourn Heng, the owner of the company, shared his experience at the festival. “My favorite film…is called Swept Under. It was a horror film but made a very big political statement.” The film he referred to was directed and written by director Ethan Soo. It revolves around true events that took place in both American and Cambodian history with a heavy focus on the Vietnam War. His film sheds a lot of light on Southeast Asian history, which is often “swept under” the rug. 

A lot of work went into putting the CTFF together, including many volunteers doing jobs such as working as receptionists, taking photos, setting up the festival itself, and much more. This gave the opportunity to many people who knew little about Cambodian culture, unlike the main audience of this festival, who are Cambodian town residents, to learn about it through these films. 

Volunteer Aniyah Jennings did not know much about Cambodian history but learned a lot through the film Elvis in Cambodia: “I personally have a connection with music, so it was cool to learn about a new one…I also learned that during the Cambodian wars, they killed all the smart people like doctors and teachers and artists as well.” She also said that she “learned about their beautiful culture and the religion they practice!” going to show how impactful it is for different cultures to be introduced to people so knowledge can continue to spread.

The films at the Cambodia Film Festival had a lot of information about the Khmer Rouge. Two standout films that focused a lot on this topic were “Elvis of Cambodia” and “Lotto,” and two documentaries about Cambodian celebrities. “Sinn Sisamouth” and “Loto” were very famous before/during the Khmer Rouge. “Elvis of Cambodia” is a film about the life and legacy of Sinn Sisamouth, an extremely famous singer in Cambodia. It tells his story with the narration of how he rose to fame through his only son, Sinn Chanchhaya, and his granddaughter Setsochhata Sinn, who both followed in his footsteps of making music. 

The film starts all the way at the beginning when he first started making music, about how he built his family and was able to start doing shows around the country, all the way up until his death in the midst of the Khmer Rouge. Lotto is about the famous Cambodian comedian Suon Bou, also known as Loto who was very famous right before the effects of the Khmer Rouge had taken place. He had dwarfism, which led to him getting a lot of comedic roles, and the documentary had personal statements from many of the people who loved him, whether that be his friends or his family. Director Farhad Shadravan heard about Lotto one day when he was living in Cambodia through an article and was shocked to find out that there was not much information about him, so he decided to visit Lotto in person.

Shadravan said, “I was shocked that nobody had done his story…he mentioned all the trials and tribulations of the different portions of his life.” The following week, when they went back to start shooting, Lotto died from a stroke. Shadravan made it his mission to tell Lotto’s story by going around to find lost footage and contacting people who knew him personally. He found it to be difficult due to many of his close relatives/friends being elderly as well. 

This year’s film lineup was an amazing way to reintroduce the festival to the Long Beach theater. Despite the two-year setback they went through because of COVID, the CTFF returned stronger than ever with a stacked collective of filmmakers and actors. These film festivals bring attention not only to the history of Cambodia with references to it throughout the films and documentaries but also to the future of Cambodian film and the spread of the culture as a whole.

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